freelancerfandomcom-20200223-history
Discovery
Online Servers Discovery is one of the biggest Freelancer mods (having the main server - Discovery Freelancer RP 24/7 - with 200 player slots, and 100-196 players on at all times). It's other official servers are Discovery UK RP 24/7, and Discovery USA RP 24/7. Mod History and Plot There have been many versions of the Discovery mod for Freelancer, all expanding greatly on the previous. The latest mod, 4.85 has been one of the largest updates to Freelancer in its history. It has taken 1.5 years to devlope this new version, and rightly so as it has a huge new plot devlopement. The year is 817 A.S. (After Settlement), 16 years after the Singleplayer Campaign. The war between Kusari and Bretonia has reached critical levels and now many Kusari battleships can be seen guarding Bretonia stations in the Leeds and Tau systems. The Kusari Navy have an overwhelming number of ships, and Bretonia can barely hold them off. There are also political tensions rising between the Liberty and Rheinland Governments lingering from the Nomad War (801 A.S.) which are elevating slowly. The other major developement is the discovery of the previously believed to be lost French house of Gallia. Records held by the main Houses stated that the French (Gallic) and Australian Sleeper ships had been blown up along with the base during a Coalition attack. The truth is that the Alliance had betrayed the Gallic people, which led to the easy destruction of the Gallic base and shipyard in the Mars Sector where all the Sleeper ships where being made at different bases. After the 5 main sleeper ships had left the Mars Sector, the Gallic survivors built another ship and followed them to the Sirius Sector. They settled in a remote part of the Sirius Sector beyond the Barrier Nebula in which the Tau systems are located. Gallia has become a thriving nation in complete isolation from the rest of the Houses, also allowing them to make far greater technological developements. Late in 817 A.S., some Independent Miners Guild ships came across some unknown ships after a series of huge explosions in a remote minefield in Orkney attracted their attention. These ships claimed to have fought off the Gallic Royal Guard and made a path through the huge minefields hiding the jumphole to the Languedoc system, hence allowing access to the rest of the Sirius Houses. These ships were part of the outlawed group of Gallia, the Coucil. The Council believed that Gallia should not be completely isolated from the rest of humanity. However the Gallic Royalty remained tight lipped about the betrayal from the Alliance that made them stay isolated. The Council, once a lawful sect of the Gallic government, were now outlawed and became the pirates of Gallis along with the Maquis. All ships from all Houses and Factions in the rest of the Sirius sector have complete access to Gallia, either through Orkney (Languedoc) or through Omicron 80 (Lorraine) New features of Discovery 4.85: New Content *79 brand new player-flyable ships with custom models; *About 30 previously added ships received new, custom-designed models; *11 new systems in 4.85: Languedoc, Dauphine, Burgundy, Champagne, Lorraine (Gallia); Pennsylvania, Kansas, Ellesmere (Liberty); Tau-39 (Border Worlds); Omicron-81 (Hispania); Unknown system (Nomad Worlds). *About 30 existing systems received significant updates in 4.85, including Alaska, Alberta, Baffin, Bremen, Cassini, Coronado, Dundee, Frankfurt, Illinois, Londonderry, Minnesota, Munich, Okinawa, Omega-52, Omega-54, Omega-56, Omega-58, Omicron-80, Omicron-91, Omicron-94, Omicron-99, Omicron Iota, Ontario, Orkney, Tau-42, Tau-45, Vespucci; *11 new factions, most with their own NPCs and ship lines: Gallic Royal Navy, Gallic Royal Police, Council, Gallic Metal Service, EFL Oil & Machinery, IDF Shipping, Maquis, Unione Corse, Gallic Brigands, The Coalition, Colonial Remnant; *Over 100 new weapons introduced, many of them having custom models and effects; *46 new commodities introduced, with multiple new trade routes; *53 new role-playing IDs introduced; *Customized NPCs on many new bases, NPCs in Gallia have newly designed costumes; *About 7,000 infocard texts added or rewritten for 4.85, including lengthy news texts and descriptions. *Revised and detailed Readme.txt and other mod documentation, added the new Discovery system map. *Included the Discovery automatic updater with an integrated list of Discovery multiplayer servers. Storyline *Introduction of a new house: Gallia, with its own lawful and unlawful factions, and 5 densely populated systems with over 40 bases to explore. *Fully formulated history of the new House which is embedded in the ongoing and dynamic discovery chronology/history, including rumors on new and old bases, faction adjustments, political adjustments and behaviour of interacting factions; *Dynamical adjustments concerning the war between Kusari and Bretonia; *Political adjustments concerning Rheinland and Liberty; *Many detailed news items present on all bases to reflect storyline developments. Revised Gameplay *Adjustments to NPC AI and repair abilities; *Rebalanced NPC loadouts and difficulty; *New NPC behaviour that allows friendly fire (CDs do not cause instant aggression from allied NPCs anymore); *New wrecks and lore; *New NPC mission difficulties to reflect a better adjusted difficulty level and to provide more challenges to even high ranks; *Changed reputation relations between various factions to ensure smooth player reputation development. Rebalancing *Unique and accurate hitboxes (collision & weapon fire hits) for almost all the ships, old and new; *Fully revised fighter and bomber weapons along with new weapons for these classes; *Fully revised capital ship rebalanced based on player specifications; *Rebalanced weaponry for all ship classes; *Revised special weapons on capital ships (ship to ship torpedoes, flak cannons); *Rebalanced damage on explosives; *Rebalanced vulnerability of all ships to achieve equal vulnerability across old and custom ships; *Revised equipment (CMs, CDs, Mines, etc.) along with durability, efficiency and functions; *Revamped capital ship patrols are now more appropriately balanced towards their supposed power. Enhanced Trade System *Enhanced commodity system with many new items based on the House economy as well as role-play demands; *Fully revised and rebalanced trade route system based on logical offer and demand as well as logical placements of commodities; *Adjustments on profit, danger, flight time, political changes to reflect a complex economy; *Graphically enhanced commodity icons for a better differentiation. Graphical Enhancements *New weapon projectile and weapon impact effects; *Large and detailed explosions for ships; *New custom models for guns, turrets, and other equipment; *Optional ENB mod that enables bloom (please read documentation and DO NOT enable it unless you are sure what you are doing). *FLMM is unable to remove ENB mod during de-activation. You will have to remove d3d8.dll from the freelancer/EXE folder manually. Testing, Bug Fixing, Performance *Fixed a number of bugs remaining from the last release; *During 9 months of internal testing and 3 months of public testing, fixed multiple bugs related to new features; *Thoroughly tested balance for both old and new ships and equipment; *Ensured maximum clientside and serverside performance, fixed multiple graphic-related issues. Category:Mods Category:History